WARNING: The following contains mild spoilers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 4, “The Whole World Is Watching,” now streaming on Disney+.
A recent episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier featured multiple huge moments for many of the series’ characters. However, one of the biggest revelations came for Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) in Episode 4, “The Whole World is Watching.” During the second half of the episode, Bucky was forced into a fight with the Dora Milaje, specifically Ayo (Florence Kasumba), who deactivated his arm, causing it to fall off. On the surface, the act seemed overly harsh towards Bucky, but in reality, it represented the hurt that Ayo felt towards her friend.
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When Bucky was taken into Wakanda, they agreed to help him because he didn’t deserve to be in the position he was in. During his time there, Bucky worked with Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Ayo to free his mind of the programming that Hydra had instilled in him. It was a success, and Bucky lived a life of relative peace as the White Wolf, until war came knocking in Avengers: Infinity War. To combat what was coming, King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) gifted Bucky a new vibranium arm, and he fought alongside the other Avengers until Thanos snapped his fingers.
Following Bucky’s return after the Blip, he was able to keep his arm. However, when he freed Zemo (Daniel Brühl) in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he called down the anger of Wakanda and the Dora Milaje. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Zemo was directly responsible for the death of Wakanda’s monarch, King T’Chaka. Zemo also used Bucky’s face to frame him and set the final conflict of Captain America: Civil War into motion.
While Bucky freed Zemo with the intention of using him to stop a dangerous terrorist group known as the Flag Smashers, he inadvertently disrespected Wakanda, who gave him asylum after the damage Zemo caused. In a show of good faith, Ayo gave Bucky eight hours to do his business before they came for Zemo. Once her ultimatum devolved into a fight later on in the episode, it became clear how disappointed Ayo was in Bucky.
To her, she was the one person who was there as he regained his humanity, and the things he did in the series so far gave the impression that he didn’t care about this history. The removal of his arm was done as both a reprimand and as a statement. The statement made was that he needed to remember who helped him get his life back and also to never take advantage of a person’s kindness. Ayo’s disappointment and pain in emasculating him in such a way can be seen on her face but also heard with in line, “Bast damn you, James,” before leaving.
Bucky had no idea that his arm had a failsafe implemented, and it was clear that the revelation hurt him. However, had he not done anything blatantly wrong both morally and to Wakanda, like helping Zemo escape, he may never have had to find out. In the end, deactivating Bucky’s arm, while hurtful, was the only way to help him understand that his methods to achieve his goal weren’t a good idea, and Ayo was right to punish him for that.
Directed by Kari Skogland, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier stars Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Emily VanCamp, Wyatt Russell, Noah Mills, Carl Lumbly and Daniel Brühl. New episodes debut Fridays on Disney+.
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